


Meet Me At the Net

by pvwork



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Wings, Gen, Going to the Store, Kittens, M/M, Mentions of Blood, Mentions of Open Wounds, Slow Burn, Swearing, Team Dynamics, Young Love, haikyuu spoilers, kagehinaweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-26
Updated: 2014-06-07
Packaged: 2018-01-26 13:28:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1690007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pvwork/pseuds/pvwork
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>1. Kageyama is an underwhelming presence off the court, but Hinata still wants all of his attention.<br/>2. Hinata is a little cat.<br/>3. <i>I will get the ball to you.</i> Except Kageyama hasn't been able to. Not lately.<br/>4. Hinata always plays to win.<br/>5. "I've never slept with anyone before."<br/>6. Kageyama goes through an existential crisis while sitting on the bench.<br/>7. Hinata's screaming again. (wings!AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Colors: Orange/ Black

When Karasuno gets on that volleyball court, the two things are that are almost impossible to miss are the orange of the libero uniform and the copper-red of Hinata's hair. 

The two most vibrant players are hard to miss. 

That's not to say that there are no other outstanding members of Karasuno, that would just be untrue. With such a driven bunch taking to the court every game and set that would be impossible to prove, but anyone would just be hard pressed to ignore such eye-catching coloring, and that's just a fact of the matter.

It's gotten to the point where when Hinata feels eyes watching him he doesn't get as nervous as he once did because he's used to it now. 

Kageyama isn't much to look at off the court. Anyone watching him in motion would be able to tell that he was an amazing setter, a prodigy, a quickly rising star. But when he's just sitting there on a bench waiting for the bus to come, his regal bearing on the court doesn't translate well at all and he becomes an average high school second year just like whole hoard of second years sitting in classrooms just behind them.

Tanaka yawns loudly and falls onto Noya dramatically, complaining about the lack of Kiyoko in their midst. The rest of the team is in varying positions of relaxation, their arms and legs sprawled out to take up as much space as obnoxiously as possible as they wait in front of their school to be bused to their first away game of the new school year. 

It's times like these that Hinata watches Kageyama to try and catch a glimpse of the intensity and genius he sees on the court. 

He watches for the way Kageyama widens his stance when he's angry and about to shout at someone, the same way he does just a fraction of a centimeter just before he launches a ball meant just for Hinata to spike. That just means that Kageyama is training all of his attention on you, whether it's to tell you off or to send the perfect toss your way.

He waits for Kageyama's biggest indication of irritation, an impossibly slow blink and an upward hitch of his shoulders like if he could just close himself off from the world the unbelievable acts of stupidity he's witnessed before him would just disappear, which is a thought process that applies both on and off the court. 

Kageyama is plain black hair and sharp black eyes and a shrewd face with a surprisingly delicate looking nose. And most of all, he is making Hinata feel like he would do anything to get all of that unwavering, expansive attention trained on him. Not on the court of course, that would be silly, because volleyball is a team sport after all and Kageyama has a lot to focus on before he can toss those impossibly accurate tosses of his. 

But off the court, if he would just glance Hinata's way with anything other than just sharp amusement or casual camaderie or cool assessment, then and only then might Hinata find some relief from the impossible itch that settles under his skin whenever he's around Kageyama. It makes his heart beat fast, frustrated and interested and fearful all at once, and it brings to the front of his mind unbidden thoughts like what Kageyama's thin lips would feel against his own, or if his hair is actually as soft as it looks even though his personality is very prickly, or what his long, fingers would feel like curled around the curve of Hinata's cheek (deftly undoing his belt, grasping the edges of his hip, taking...)

"Hinata? Are your sporting a fever or something? You look like you might blow a fuse. Maybe the last of the summer heat is getting to you." 

And Hinata can only just laugh a little awkwardly and shift his sports bag into his lap under the pretense of rummaging around for a water bottle while watching as Kageyama wraps his thin, pink lips around the neck of his own water bottle and take a swig, the line of his throat illuminated by the nearly noon time sun. 

"Uhh, I'm fine. Yeah. Just. Nervous. You know, how I get. Psyching myself out." 

"I thought you were over that though."

"Relapse," Hinata says, giggling nervously as the bus arrives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Binge read all the chapters of Haikyuu! and watched all the episode of the anime in basically the span of a day. Best/worst decision this month.
> 
> Finals coming up so updates will be sporadic at best, but I'm totally going to finish all 7 prompts for kagehina week eventually!


	2. Nicknames: Little Cat/ Flightless Crows/ Bonobo

You know that thing that happens when people spend too much time with their pets and they start looking alike? There's that German shepherd whose owner has a startling amount of tan Chinos and black polos, the poodle owner who spontaneously decides to get a perm, the cat owner who starts wearing glasses with tortoiseshell frames that matches the molten pattern of a tortoiseshell cat. 

That last one is not what happens to Tetsurou. Not by a long shot. 

He doesn't even own a cat. 

"You look like a cat. Those frames make your eyes look exponentially shinier and evil-er." 

"You look like a loser, is what you look like Kenma," Tetsurou fires back and adjusts the frames of his reading glasses to show he's not bothered by Kenma's stupid comparison. 

"We're all losers here," Kenma says easily, his small smile hidden as he ducks his head back to his PS3 and chuckles over Tetsurou's indignant squawk and his screech that: FYI, if he looked _like_ a cat then Karasuno's infamous number ten looked _exactly like_ a cat. A fucking ginger cat, that was ginger as fuck. And no one is a loser in Nekoma because everyone is a fucking winner. Fuck yeah.

Just as Kageyama tosses a volleyball into the air, Hinata lets out a sound-barrier-breaking sneeze and falls back as he tries to sneeze and avoid the ball at the same time. 

The volleyball hits him square in the face, so not only does his butt hurt from impact with the ground, but his face also hurt. From impact with the ball.

"What was that?" Kageyama says, eyes already rolling to the skies as if to look for an answer there, shoulders already set like he knew exactly what that was already. That specifically being Hinata being an idiot all day every day. Even on Saturdays, which it was. 

They were just trying to squeeze in some extra practice time after cram school because what the heck they were on school grounds already. 

"I just sneezed! Don't you see? I was incapable of handling the ball!" 

"Wait. You're not sick are you? Get away from me if you're sick." Kageyama says as he inches away from Hinata, "I don't need to get sick right before midterms." 

Hinata just sniffs and turns away so that the cool wind that had just started blowing blew straight into his face, pushing his hair back and drying out his eyes. 

From behind him, Hinata hears a peal of laughter and peeks over his shoulder to see Kageyama incapacitated, bent over double and clutching his stomach. 

"You looked," here Kageyama must not be able to help himself because he gasps like a fish on land, face an unattractive shade of red-pink and mouth gaping as he struggles with himself, "like an angry cat. The wind. Your hair." 

Here Kageyama laughs again, this wheezing chuckling thing that makes Hinata smile hesitantly because he's never seen the other boy smile so big. His laugh sounds good, sounds deep and genuine and for once, lacks malice, and that's really the only reason Hinata isn't jumping across the space between them to throttle Kageyama. Honest. 

It's not like he's cute or anything. Eyes scrunched up and pearly while teeth flashing in mirth. Not adorable. 

"Ears," Kageyama gasps, his dark eyes seeking Hinata's. 

And Hinata smiles back hesitantly before he declares in his loudest voice, "We're not cats! We're crows!"

Kageyama exhales deeply and stops laughing, straightening and retrieving the ball before he returns to his usual starting spot.

"Yeah, yeah. We don't want anyone calling us the 'flightless crows' again or anything." 

Hinata smiles and says, "I don't think they do anymore."

"And this is coming from a little cat," Kageyama says.

Hinata pretends to scowl and settles into his starting stance. "I am going to spike the ball right into your face. And then you'll look just like a bonobo." 

Kageyama looks unimpressed as he spins the ball between his hands in preparation to throw it into the air. "You don't even know what that is!" he says, like that's even a valid accusation when Hinata knows for a fact that Kageyama doesn't even have the faintest idea what species a bonobo is even. Which, Hinata doesn't know either, but he's pretty sure it's a kind of monkey.

"Do too!" 

"Do not!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, bonobos are in the same genus as chimpanzees, but they are their own own species. A great ape, and endangered.


	3. Promise: Kings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Potential spoilers for Ch. 80 onwards.

_I will get the ball to you._

Except he hasn't been able to. Not lately.

It was a fine promise to make. If only you knew that oathbreakers go to hell, fire licking at their smoking skin like an indicator that the worst is yet to come. 

Kageyama becomes just a body falling the great fall from atop his throne down into a deep, red-glazed tunnel, the flames are licking at his hair and the smoke is stinging his eyes. 

He wakes up drenched in cold sweat even though the night is sweltering. A mass of boys are all around him, a seemingly endless sea of bodies and blankets and mats and restless feet as they play ball in their sleep. 

Training camp has been physically exhausting and emotionally draining. There's only so many times you can play to lose before your ready to do something dangerous and break something. 

Deciding that there will be no more sleep this fine, fine morning, he stands and heads for the bathroom. Then he swings by the kitchen to check for leftovers before finally heading to the porch that overlooks that one big grassy field. 

"You should go back to bed," a voice says and Kageyama turns suddenly to see Suga, illuminated in black and whites by the moonlight. He looks ancient. He looks tired. 

"So should you." 

"What are you doing so up late at night?" 

"It's almost early morning," Kageyama says, just to be a bother, but he shrugs to show that he's not really sure himself. A nightmare about being too incompetent to live isn't much to talk about. 

"Maybe you're having some anxiety?" Suga says, like he got his hands on Kageyama's thoughts somehow, "It's only the third day of camp and we've hardly won any sets at all, let alone games." 

"What?" Kageyama asks, in his rudest, most obnoxious voice. 

Suga just smiles and shrugs, his shoulders shifting and making it all look so easy, like defeat is hardly a weight at all. 

"Don't take it too personally. It's okay to feel bad about not doing well, but volleyball..." 

"Is a team sport," Kageyama finishes, "Yes. I know. Now." 

"That's good. Please do keep that in mind." 

Kageyama sits in silence in response for as long as he can manage. The moon moves from the middle of the sky to hover over the skyline in the distance. Suga is still sitting upright, radiating a peaceful kind of stillness that only regular insomniacs have, while Kageyama is ready to fall over as his eyelids try their hardest to reunite, and glue themselves together.

Finally, he stands and places a hand on Suga's shoulder briefly as he moves to leave. At this point he's ready to acknowledge that Suga did pass on some encouraging words.

Kageyama knows that he doesn't deserve the position of regular setter. God, does he knows that. He may have the skills, but he doesn't have the heart, he's still a work in progress on that front most of all and he wants to make it work so bad that it's becoming a pain. A constant pain in his neck as he thinks about how Suga is strong, strong enough to carry so much faith in the team even now, and how tired Kageyama is in comparison, ready to have an existential crisis all over again. Two quarter life crises in a span of a year? It's just too much.

Sinking back into bed, Kageyama tries to visualize just what success would look like. 

"Kings," a voice says and Kageyama decides that he is fucking weary of prophetic voices coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. He turns to see Hinata sleeping with his mouth open, lips moving as he sleep talks. 

"Kings of the court." 

And Kageyama colors, because they haven't talked in the while, but apparently the dream is very much alive. 

"Dumbass," he whispers, just to see what might happen and Hinata turns so that he's facing him, arms reaching and fingers twitching a little. The turn is abrupt and if Kageyama hadn't scooted back fast enough he would have gotten slapped in the face. 

Hinata's almost too much of a bother to really be worth it. Almost. He's got the kind of unwavering faith that Kageyama is simultaneously jealous and cynical of. No one can be so cheerful about a sport all the time. Kageyama loves volleyball so much, so much that it's causing him to question his life choices when he's not doing as well as he wants, but that's just a product of intense devotion and the doubt that crops up when deep faith is met with few returns. 

"Kings," Hinta says, like a promise. Like he can see the future in his dreams, behind his delicately veined eyelids, that Karasuno is going to be kings of the court. Royalty. 

And Kageyama is almost certain that he begins to fall in love in that moment. That certainty, that faith, in this moment, is quite charming. It's unfortunate that Hinata is such a dumbass the rest of the time, overeager and clumsy and stupid and hopeful and loveable. His heart lurches as he thinks about, maybe, a time in the distant future when Hinata might turn his overbright eyes onto him and touch his cheek and whisper, "That was great," like he knew all along what Kageyama was capable of, not just on the volleyball court.

Kageyama reaches out so that the tips of their fingers overlap, not daring to try and tangle their fingers together yet, this is enough, it will last, this will last always, and he goes to sleep thinking about faith in kings and sleep the sleep of the hopeful.


	4. All I Do is Win

_All I do is win, win, win no matter what._

Hinata is a very driven individual. He likes to win no matter what, and for some that might be a fatal flaw, but for a guy like Hinata, so sweet and earnest, it's hard to believe that he doesn't have anything except the purest intentions of achieving his best goals for the greater good. Just check that boy out on the volleyball court and you'll see.

At least, that's the kind of thing that Kageyama is trying to convince  himself of. Hinata really likes to win but he's not going to do it through means that are evil or devious or conniving like some people are wont to do. He's straight forward. He's very upfront about his intentions, even when it gets him in trouble.

Maybe it's just you, Kageyama. Everyone says Kageyama Tobio doesn't have a soul anyway. They say he sold it to the devil so that he could set like a god, but honestly why would he need to sell like that to be this good as this?

All the same, his mind is in the grimiest and grossest of gutters because anyone who thinks about Hinata like he's doing cannot manage to climb into anything cleaner. We're talking subterranean, hundreds of years old and thousands of layers of unmentionables caked one atop one another levels of gutter-dom.

It ends like this.

Hinata arrives in front of Kageyama's house and walks with him to the market around the corner for a quick post-dinner snack under the guise of a study session with him because Kageyama's parents are out for the night. On their way down, they walk in a companionable silence and Hinata cranes his neck to catch a glimpse of the stars sitting on the telephone lines lining the streets like impossibly bright crows on a wire.

He's wearing a big shirt, one of mine that he stole out of my backpack, Kageyama notes absently.

The fact only really hits him when the two of them are standing under the flickering light of fluorescent lights in front of the drinks display trying to decide what to get.

"The aloe drink or the green tea?" Hinata asks but it's not really a question because he's already opening the fridge and grabbing two bottles of green tea before Kageyama even says anything.

The collar of his shirt slides across his shoulders unevenly because no matter how much muscle Hinata might have put on since joining the volleyball team he'll never be anything other than lithe and Kageyama still has a couple centimeters of height on him.

It makes a bright, fond glow start in his chest, which diffuses through his person and turns his face an unflattering shade of pink. What if he could wake to that sight every morning? The thought that Hinata could ever be that casual with him makes Kageyama's stomach do flips, and jump up to try and strangle his heart.  

What if he could grow familiar with the shift of skin over muscles under that oversized shirt? What if he could traces the path that collar took, shifting across Hinata's neck and delicate collarbones, with his tongue? What if he could get his mouth on that mouth, the very one that's moving in speech.

"What are you doing?" Hinata asks and Kageyama lets out an unmanly little yelp.

"Just. You know. Looking. Maybe," Kageyama pauses, "we should try something new some time."

"Do you not like green tea anymore? Who are you and what have you done to my best friend?" Hinata gasps.

 Hinata looks up at him with an exaggerated expression of surprised, his mouth a lush o and his a sparkle with mischief as he steps closer and continues in a whisper, "Is there anything you want to tell me, Mr. Alien Overlord?"

He winks as he steps back and even though he can't possibly know what Kageyama is thinking goes on to say, "I promise I won't tell anyone you've been bad."

Kageyama's eyes might not be able to stray from the sight of Hinata's figure disappearing down the snack aisle to head for the counter, but he swears his blood rushes straight down to remind him that he is an awful human being.

Hinata grins cheekily as he looks back at Kageyama and for the second time that night he leaves Kageyama behind blushing to the roots of his hair with a funny feeling like adoration fizzling in his blood.

On the way home, Hinata chatters happily about this UFO documentary he watched last night: completely in English!

Eventually, they do get around to studying, but while Hinata is busy scrawling a quick rough draft of his history essay into his notebook, just like Kageyama should be doing, all he can manage to do is stare from under his lashes at the curve of Hinata's cheek in the soft yellow. The way his hair curls sweetly around his temples and the way he bites his lip as he thinks between sentences.

In moments like this, Kageyama can only imagine what it would be like to be able to live like this with Hinata, in a quiet home empty save for the two of them, decorated with soft lights. The two of them could work on assignments across a dinner table or watch horror movies together. They'd end up screaming and throwing popcorn at the awful B-rated special effects anyway. They could end up kissing with teeth and tongue and soft gasps too. The smooth skin on Hinata's neck under Kageyama's mouth would be a contrast to his rough fingers dragging across the skin on Kageyama's back as he scrabbles for more purchase, more friction as they gasp in the dark, lit only by the dim TV screen, the soundtrack to their make out would be exaggerated screams and sickly squelches.

It's the way that Hinata smiles when he finally writes another sentence that has Kageyama wishing he could feel that smile pressed against his own lips, against his hip, against his cheek as Hinata whispers awful, no good things into his ears in a breathy voice like he knows just what thoughts Kageyama might harbor about his virtue and his probably amazingly calloused hands.

Hinata chooses to lick his lips in that moment and Kageyama wheezes as he takes a sip of his drink, thinking about those lips earlier that night pursed and red, but for another reason entirely.

"Did you finish your intro? I thought that we could trade essays and, uh, talk about our arguments a little. I'm having some trouble with my third body paragraph."

Hinata's too close suddenly, having scooted his chair over right next to Kageyama's as he had been wheezing and coughing moments before. Hinata is mercilessly pointing out all the flaws in his essay and sitting too close and it's not like they don't talk because they do, but Kageyama still feels heat flood his face.

"This sentence is ridiculous. I know that you can do better," Hinata laughs. "I've seen you make clearer statements with just hand signals at volleyball games than this!"  

They talk regularly, all the time, they're the oddball duo and at some point Kageyama should have just built up an immunity to Hinata's stupid charm, or so you would think. They play on the same sports team for sake of whatever loving deity the world may have, but it's the trip to the store with Hinata wearing his shirt and it's the stupidly concentrated way he gets about his essays ever since he got full marks that one time the end of first year and the way he smells like lemon soap and sunscreen and the terribly endearing way he laughs at an error in Kageyama's essay that has him throwing in the metaphorical white towel.

He gives up.

Hinata wins, he always will.

"I wrote it while trying to figure out if we'll ever reach domestic bliss together. You. Me. Awful horror movie and burnt dinners on Saturday and kissing each other stupid on a couch in our very own place," Kageyama says all in a rush. Because there's no point in holding back at this point. His tongue practically sprang to life without any concern for his own wellbeing, it's only thought to try something...new.

"Was that a confession?" Hinata asks slowly, his eyes turning sharp as he turns to regard Kageyama critically."

"You're wearing my shirt."

"I like you too," Hinata says, dryly.

Kageyama is familiar with the way Hinata moves, so when Hinata slides of his own chair and makes a move to sit in his lap, Kageyama's hands reach out to slide up along his sides accommodate the shift in weight, fingers sliding up the sides of a too big shirt.

"Can I," Hinata smiles a little more broadly, "kiss you?"

"You've been planning this," Kageyama says, accusatory even as his fingers stutter over the sharp jut of Hinata's hips and he feels the shiver run through the other boy.

"We're _fated_ ," Hinata corrects primly, turning his face away so that Kageyama can only press his lips to his cheek and smile because Hinata is ridiculous, beautiful and upfront and conniving and serious.

"That's ridiculous."

"You're ridiculous."

Kageyama laughs at the challenge and says, "Okay, okay, let me show you ridiculous."

Their first kiss is sloppy, noses pressing and foreheads colliding and eyes closed because that's how they do it movies and they break apart laughing with an electric buzz passing through their ribs as each breath presses them closer together. Hinata winds his hands through Kageyama's hair and leans close enough that his wide amber eyes fill up Kageyama's vision.

"That was kind of awful."

"I think that we should practice," Hinata says, a sly look coming onto his face as he presses closer, his breath ghosting across Kageyama's face. He'll taste faintly bitter like tea and the will to win but mostly like artificial sweetener and his lips are a little dry but his mouth will be warm and his fingers are nimble as they twine through Kageyama's hair.

"Shouyou, you dumbass," Kageyama says softly, the taste of that name on his mouth heady like strong liquor he's only ever had a mouthful of, like victory he's only realized can be so sweet since he's arrived at Karasuno. "Practice makes perfect, or didn't you know?"

"Excuse you, Tobio," Shouyou says with a smile on his lips, his eyes as impossibly bright as the stars, "I'd like to let you know that all I _do_ is win."

_And every time I step up in the building/ everybody's hands go up._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "All I Do is Win" by DJ Khaled ft. Ludacris, Rick Ross, T-Pain, and Snoop Dogg


	5. Firsts: Sleeping Together

"I've never slept with anyone before," Kageyama blurts out instead of saying "Good morning" like the average person should do in the situation he's in. 

Hinata's blurry eyes turn to regard Kageyama from across the bed and he looks confused and kind of cute, his hair standing up in every direction. 

He blinks slowly at Kageyama and yawns. It should be unflattering, the way his jaw cracks and his eyes get all scrunched up, but Kageyama just laughs and rolls over onto his back so that he doesn't have to look at this boy who looks ten times cuter than the cutest kitten. 

"Not ever?" 

"No."

"Well, it's not that exciting," Hinata says plainly as he crawls over Kageyama's body to get out of the bed. Kageyama tries not to blush, he really does.

"Yeah, but I never have to share my space. Only child over here." 

"Careful where you step, don't trip on anything and fall over because Natsu is a light sleep like that," Hinata warns, as if Kageyama's only child status renders him an asshole to others. 

"See, I don't understand why you couldn't have just slept on the ground," Hinata mutters as he rummages around for a shirt to trade his sleep shirt for and pants to put on over his boxers. 

"It's cold!" 

"It's summer!" 

"If you didn't want me there, you should have just said so," Kageyama mutters as he sullenly put on socks. 

They'd stayed up too late playing video games last night and Kageyama didn't have anything planned for the next day so one quick phone call home and three spare blankets spread on the ground later, Kageyama had been lying in the dark listening to Hinata breathe noisily in the darkness.

"Scoot the fuck over, I can't get to sleep." 

Hinata let out a confused grunt but didn't protest when Kageyama climbed into bed with him. 

"What would Suga say?" Hinata whispered. Kageyama looked stupidly awake at this time of night, so Hinata did what he usually did when his kdi sister can't get to sleep, and threw an arm around Kageyama, drawing him close. 

He'd forgotten how tall Kageyama was because they'd spent the whole night sitting down with controllers in their hands screaming bloody murder as their characters died and resurrected again, but now Hinata found that he has to tuck himself into the curve of Kageyama's chest. It was kind of nice.

"You're too tall," Hinata said with his face mashed into Kageyama's sleep shirt after some time. He'd been breathing in the smell of boy sweat and laundry detergent that was not his own and beginning to fall back to sleep again.

Kageyama answered with a snore. 

Which is why Hinata just laughs and says, "Oh, if I didn't want you in my bed you would know." and smirks when Kageyama turns an unflattering shade of red.


	6. Perspective: Unnecessary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Potential spoilers for Ch. 100 and onwards

His nose doesn't hurt _that_ much. It's not enough to suddenly compromise his judgment or anything. He can still play! He's so fine that he could smooth out even that littlest bit of graininess carpenters complain about when installing fine wooden panels on furniture, that's how fine Kageyama is. 

The pain in his nose has nothing on the pain his pride is suffering right now. Pride is enough to play the game, but it's not enough to help transcend the limits of the physical body that must house it and so. Getting a bloody nose from a headshot is a ridiculous way to be forced out of the game, yet Kageyama is stuck sitting on the sidelines after he returns from a visit with the medic.

"It's not that bad, you know," Yamaguchi says. 

Kageyama just grunts in response and goes back to intensely stare at the court, at the team. Maybe if he stopped looking at Yamaguchi he would stop thinking such bitter thoughts. 

"You learn a lot by watching games. I'm sure you watch recordings and things, but sometimes, it's best to watch the real thing up close and personal." 

Kageyama turns to glance at Yamaguchi out of the corner of his eye. The other boy is just sitting there with a thoughtful look and a little smile, peaceful. The tension in the air is so thick that even a serve like Oikawa's would have to slow down in the face of it. Kageyama turns back to the court.

Kageyama wants to say something sharp and scathing but all he can manage to do is croak out a soft, "Yeah?" 

"Yeah. I mean, there's a lot that recordings can catch, but the atmosphere is impossible to pin down because you don't know what's going to happen next. Watching from the sidelines, you're just so close," Yamaguchi says and his grin widens as the shrill sound of the whistle. "But far enough away to be a little objective." 

Kageyama is silent for the rest of his time on the bench, regarding the plays, watching the serves and holding his breath because in this moment he is helpless to change anything, but the team moves without him. 

He's an asset. A prodigy. But he's not necessary the way he had previously thought. Hinata is a force to be reckoned with all on his own, and his hits have gotten better. He no longer _needs_ Kageyama to be there to get the ball to him. 

He's an important part of the machine, but that doesn't mean it can't run without him.

The new revelation sets his teeth on edge.

Later, on the bus back, Hinata's chattering up a storm next to him, Kageyama only looks out the window quietly instead of engaging in a mock battle of wills. 

"You're awful quiet today," Hianta says. "Were you even listening to me describe that awesome move Nishinoya did just now?" 

"It was all whoosh's and whup's and swoosh's. How am I supposed to interpret that?" 

"Hey, don't be such a spoilsport. What's go you so down?"

Hinata sees right to the root of the problem and Kageyama feels a little resentful because of it but he tamps it down and only stares more intently outside the window. The green trees in the distance burn. 

"I'm just thinking. I have a new perspective about the game now, you know?" 

"Oh yeah, me too!" Hinata exclaims and then he's pushing up into Kageyama's space even more insistently, his chin propped up on Kageyama's shoulders and his face awful close. 

"I was thinking about how you make me better on the court." 

"Yeah?"

"We came up from the bottom, but look at us now!" Hinata says, eyes shining bright behind the fringe of bangs falling into them, his eyebrows raised like he can't believe Kageyama doesn't feel the same. "I'd say we're flying pretty high." 

"That's...true."

Kageyama would hate to admit it but Hinata's words comfort him. He's an asset, and that doesn't make him any less or more than what he is. He's good at what he does, and why shouldn't he be happy to know that the people he takes to the court with are just as great without him? He's honored to be able to play with them. 

Hinata blows a raspberry right into his ear and laughs when Kageyama reaches out to swat at him in annoyance. 

"What was that for!"

"Don't be such a grouch, it was all in good fun!" 

Hinata's shrieks of delight and Kageyama's growled half empty threats take up all the space at the back of the bus. 

Up towards the front, Tanaka is placing a twenty delicately into Nishinoya's palm with a look of intense regret on his face. 

"Told you Hinata could cheer him up in ten minutes or less."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I said after finals, but what I actually meant was this will be an exercise in procrastination before finals.


	7. Choice: Wings

Hinata's screaming again, but this time it's during the dead of night so no one is there to shush the initial sounds of his pain echoing into the dead air around them. 

The summer has been unnaturally hot. Tonight had been almost blessedly cool and everyone had dosed off in one position or another, propped up against walls or each other, and sprawled on the ground. Sleep has been in short supply lately. 

Kageyama is the one who sprints from across the gym and wrestles Hinata so that he is once again lying flat on his stomach. 

Something in his gut wretches apart when he has take off his shirt to lay across the ground before he unceremoniously shoves Hinata's face into the floor. 

"Shh, shh, it's me, Hinata, it's me," Kageyama whispers frantically. He hands flutter across Hinata's back to find a good place to settle and he finally just rests his hands on his flank and strokes the boy's heaving sides. "Please stop. If you get any louder _they'll_ come back again and find us for sure this time." 

Hinata's screams peter off into whimpers, but he still struggles against Kageyama's hold because he's delirious with pain. Kageyama lays down on the ground on his side and presses Hinata's face into his shoulder, turning the other boy on his side too. 

"Shouyou, Shouyou, it's me. It's me. Shhh." 

"Kageyama. When can I fly? I just wanted to fly," Hinata cries, his teeth a wet, slick pressure against Kageyama's shoulder and he feels sick as he continues to try and soothingly pat at Hinata's side. He can feel his ribs contract and expand with each strangled breath. 

"It's okay. Soon," Kageyama says, gritting his teeth and forcing the words out from between them, "soon, you're wings will grow in and we'll all take to the skies."

His hand is beginning to feel as sickly slick as his shoulder. Hinata's pained gasps press into his skin and make his blood freeze and his own back twinges but he ignores it to curl even more tightly around Hinata. 

"Shouyou, you dumbass, you're okay, you're okay, I'm here," Kageyama says quietly, so quietly he hopes that no one but Hinata can hear him. 

"We're going to fly." 

"Yes," Kageyama says, and he means it he really does, desperately and hopelessly but he does mean it.

"Okay, okay," Hinata says as his eyes glaze over and his mouth falls slack and Kageyama once again lays him down on his stomach. He pillows Hinata's head on his ragged and dirty shirt and draws back his hand that's slick with blood and pus and wipes it on his black sweat pants. 

"How is he doing?"

Suga looks drawn and worried. His figure droops as he regards Hinata's prone figure, but Kageyama stands and only winces a little as his back twinges again, this time more insistently. 

"He's going to be fine. It's hard on him, but he's strong, you know? He'll pull through." 

"Yes, I'm sure he will," Suga says, slowly as he turns to look out windows near the roof of the gym they've been holed up in for nearly two weeks now. The stars are all but invisible now.

"Supplies run tomorrow?" Tanaka murmurs. He's half asleep and sprawled across four people who take his weight with resignation. They're all tired enough not to care at this point. 

"More antiseptic," Sawamura whispers, his face pressed into Azumane's back. "I think we should get more cold iron to ward off...whatever it is that's targeting us." 

Kiyoko yawns and turns away from Yachi's sleeping form to stretch and bring out a notepad as if preparing to rattle of the list of supplies they really do need. 

In that moment a pounding on their door startles everyone awake.

"Asahi, take the crowbar. Nishinoya, take the shield, can you do that? Please," Sawamura says as he jumps up quickly. He's already reaching for his weapon as he continues to hiss orders into the darkness of the gym. "Tanaka and I will have the lances. Suga, you and Kageyama should fall back with whatever remaining arrows we have. Kiyoko and Yachi, please take Hinata and prepare to run. Make sure you take the guns too."

Everyone scatters, a flurry of action in the dark, grabbing what essentials they have and stuffing them into pockets in the same motion they pick up weapons and ready themselves for the battle ahead.

"Daichi, I'm going to open the door now," Azumane says lowly. He's huddled with Nishinoya near one of the two locked entrances to the gym. Nishinoya is tense, his shield held ready before him and he looks ready to fling himself into the oncoming darkness as soon as the doors open.

As Azumane undoes the locks on the door and opens it cautiously, a black figure slips through the thin space. 

Kageyama lets loose an arrow that would have pierced the shadow in its heart and should have dissipated it, but instead the man standing just on their threshold lets the blunt arrow slam home against his chest and only winces a little as he picks up the blunt, iron capped arrow from the ground. 

"This is really clever. But how did you get the bows to shoot these? We had to make our own slingshots to fling cold iron pellets." 

Sawamura looks like he's going to fucking kill a whole hoard of unknown shadow figures right that moment as he storms over, lance still held in front of him and face blank with cold fury. 

"Kuroo, you fucker, why didn't you send a messenger first or something?"

"It's urgent. No time and no resources for it unfortunately. Nekoma has scattered to spread the word. You've heard about the alliance that's forming right? Us versus Them. The final showdown is in another turn of the moon." 

"Another month, Kuroo, another month." 

Sawamura looks tired now, and he gestures for Azumane to lock the door again and for the rest of Karasuno to gather around. 

"It was not so long ago when things were still normal."

 _When we were still human_ hangs unsaid in the air between them. 

"Yeah," Kuroo says without blinking, luminescent yellow eyes flashing in the darkness. "But it was long enough ago that it hardly matters now, right?" He proceeds to grin just like the Cheshire cat, and it exposes his unnaturally sharp canines teeth.

"Fine." 

Kageyama watches Sawamura's look infinitely more tired in the dark of the gym. Everyone's breathing a little heavily from that near miss. 

"Nice shot, Kageyama," Tsuikishima says quietly from somewhere behind him and he nods curtly.

He glances back at Hinata's still form and feels a worried jolt to his system as Kuroo begins to recite the information needed to reach the gathering point next month. If Hinata isn't well by then, he will have to be left behind as Kageyama goes to fight. Precision shooters are in high demand and he and Suga will definitely be sent by Karasuna as a show of good faith. There will be no one to stay by Hinata's side like he can once he's gone, soothing his nightmares and holding him as he shudders through the transition to become something more than human. 

"Is he going to be alright? Kenma will be sad to hear of his condition." 

"Is that why you're here?" Kageyama says instead of answering. 

Kuroo just shrugs with sloppy grace and waits for Kageyama to speak again, which he does, unwillingly. 

"His wings," Kageyama says slowly, spreading the black feathered monstrosities that have sprouted from his own back in a luxurious stretch to parallel his words, "have been coming in with some difficulty. They're a lot bigger than he is and it's basically ripping his whole back open." 

Kuroo nods. "He's losing a lot of blood." 

"He'll grow into his wings," Kageyama says with a wry twist of his lips like he actually knows that Hinata will pull through.

"Tobio?" 

"You should go to him," Kuroo says, to Kageyama's back because he's already making his way to Hinata. "I'll find other entertainment," Kuroo says almost to himself as he slinks over to where Sawamura is angrily going over the cold iron tips of arrows and lances. 

"Shouyou?" Kageyama whispers as he hovers over Hinata. 

"Next full moon? I'll be there. I'll be there with you." 

"Yeah?" He whispers, because he doesn't dare hope that Hinata might be at his side, his crowbar in hand and the heat radiating off his back warming Kageyama's. Suga and Kageyama strike with their arrows from their high vantage points, but Hinata is the one who keeps their position clear, watches their backs and makes sure none of the shadows ever grow close enough to catch them unaware.

"Do you," Hinata sighs, as if stopping himself from saying something. "I promise." 

The silence between them is sweet. Kageyama leans down and presses a chaste kiss to Hinata's dry, bitter lips. They had hope and dreams once, about a future spent on the court. The way the moonlight falls across Hinata's bare shoulders, sad and slow, makes him wish for better times. His heart beats an unsteady rhythm, too many thoughts bubbling in his mind reminding him what he's fighting for, that his friends depend on him, that this tiny militia they've formed in their former volleyball club gym is enough to save the world with just a little help from people just like them, lets him dream of being young and able to play games that don't involve life or death stakes.

"Let's play volleyball again, when this is all over," Hinata whispers before his eyes shut and he falls back asleep.

"Yeah. Yeah, we will."


End file.
